ARK Dragonriders
by Red Wyvern Emperor
Summary: In a world full of prehistoric creatures, safety is a luxury. There is one way however, a tribe of defenders, protectors and nomads. Come and follow stories and adventures of Dragonriders as they ascend to down to Earth to learn the truth... of ARKs.


**Hey guys! I've been playing ARK lately and I got an idea for a story. Of course I need to change few things about game mechanics to make the story work, but nothing too breaking and everything has a cause. Also, bear in mind I always play solo, mainly because I don't have anyone to play with, without turning it into building and gathering simulator instead of adventure. And let's be honest… official servers are just overcrowded and it never ends up in like a nice communities making villages or something. It's always each to his own. So I thought… why not write it down? XD**

**Anyhow, I hope you guys will like it. ENJOY!**

"What the… where am I?" Those are usually the first words that every newcomer says.

Young girl was just waking up. She felt her body and whole surrounding move around ever so slightly. It was like she was in some moving vehicle. She asked those same words when she opened her eyes.

She was in some wooden cage together with two other people. All of them were naked, including her and all were young. None was over 20 years old. They were on a carriage pulled by… a dinosaur. Yes, a living moving dinosaur. There was some really muscular man sitting on its back.

"Shut up back there!" he yelled at her.

Girl was scared, she curled into a ball and asked "Wh… what's going on?"

"We don't know." One of the captives, a boy, said. They all were trying to hide their… prominent characteristics… of course "I just woke up on some beach with this thing in my hand." He rose his left hand up to show her an implant integrated into his skin just below his wrist.

Girl looked at hers left hand and saw the very same implant. In panic, she tried to scratch it out, but it was futile. It was like the thing was part of her now "What is this thing? Where are we? What is…?"

That moment, a whip sounded through the air and girl screamed in pain.

"SHUT UP YOU BRAT!" she finally realized there were men outside the cage as well. They rode various dinosaurs, from pachycephalosaurus through parasaur and one had a large raptor. Lastly, there were 3 that rode pteranodons.

"Hey!" a boy in cage yelled back "What kind of man hits a girl?!"

"SHUT UP! They will hear us and we're all dead." Another one spoke "Just be quiet and you'll be fine."

"At least tell us where you're taking us." Another captive, a girl, spoke. All these captives had no hair and were all naked. They all assumed that these scumbags cut their hair and took their clothes, but it did not change anything about the fact that they were riding a FREAKING DINOSAURS!

"We're taking you to our tribe. Chief will decide what to do with you." Driver of carriage said.

"I'm reserving this one." Redhead felt a slap on her butt as one of those scumbags slapped her through the cage bars.

"Not fair!" another one laughed "I'm gonna spar you for that one!"

Meanwhile, girl was terrified, her brain was already on fight or flight mode, but that slap and their tone sure made her scared for her life. But then, a fearsome roar echoed nearby.

"Fuck!" driver cursed "They are after us!"

Guys on pteranodons flew off and more roaring could be heard from beyond the trees. It was something big and powerful. They heard screaming of wounded pteranodons and then… human screaming. Riders quickly sped up and now were springing through the forest. Then… screams went silent, only thumping of dino feet and carriage could be heard. Even all birds and animals of forest went quiet.

Captives did not say anything either. It was obvious that no matter what was out there, it could be much worse than these scumbags.

A looming shadow flew over the group. They couldn't see it clearly through the trees, but it was there, huge flying creature. Wings as long as a house, long tail and fearsome aura to boot. It roared and it was the most terrifying noise in existence. Souls of all captives shriveled to deepest parts of their hearts in fear of whatever was flying above them.

"What is that thing!?" Redhead screamed out in fear.

"Silence!" Another whip flies and aims for the girl, but this time, boy rushes forward, grabs girl's hand and pulled her away. Out of whip's reach and shielded her with his body.

And that moment, carriage shook very violently and came to a sudden halt. Captives lost their balance and were moved towards the front of cage.

"You OK?" Boy asked, looking at everyone, including girl in his arms. Everyone nodded.

One of the girls screams in terror and everyone looks at the driver. They… did not see him. There was just a huge scaly snout, horned head with bright yellow eyes. Blood was rushing down from beneath it. It was a very fearsome creature. A dragon.

Suddenly it twitched its head, cracking of bones was audible and then it swung its head, throwing bloody corpse of rider away together with dino's severed head. Body of headless dinosaur fell down, lifeless.

"Fuck!" others suddenly screamed and ran off, but there was something more. They kept on screaming and running off on their dinos, but… there was something more. Something… was hunting them. One by one, their screams were silenced while more roaring echoed through the forest. Soon, only growling of a giant dragon that stood before the cage remained.

"I don't wanna die!" redhead yelled.

"No need to worry." Another voice, a soothing, girly, young, pierced the silence "You're safe now."

They all looked at the dragon. On its head stood a figure in metal armor. She was holding a metal shield in her left hand and shining blue sword in her right hand. It was then that they noticed dragon had a saddle.

Another noise from other side of cage caught their attention. There were more people in metal armor, two strong men, opening the cage "Come on, it's alright."

Boy captive gently pulls redhead in his hands on her feet and escorts her out of cage. Men in armor helped each of them out of cage. Of course they all were scared, but who would try to argue with armed people?

"Here." The one from dragon brought a bunch of clothes "I hope these will fit you. We can adjust them later."

Everyone dresses up. These were just simple white clothes made from animal hide and some fibers. Now this made everyone slightly more relaxed.

"Who are you people?" Boy asked.

Girl that was standing on dragon's head took down her metal helmet. She had silver shoulder length ponytail "Name's Jessica. Sorry we got to you too late."

"I'm Martin." Boy said.

"Karen." Another girl, a blondie said.

"B… Bloom." Redhead said, still afraid to go from Martin's hug.

"Nice to meet you all." Jessica nodded "Please, we'll explain you everything, but right now we have to get out of here." She gestured at her friend, a muscular man and looked at Karen "You will go with Norris here." Then she looked at Martin and Bloom "You two will go with me."

Nobody said a thing as they split. Jessica led two of them to her dragon. It was a big red… wyvern. It had two legs and really long wings it also used as front legs. Tail was also really long, bending upwards. Of course two newbies were scared, but eventually sat on dragon's back. Saddle was big just enough for 3 people.

"Alright, hold on tight." Jessica spoke just before wyvern spread her wings and flew right up through tree crowns.

Bloom had her eyes closed, her arms hugged around Jessica's torso. But when wyvern settled the flight, she slowly opened them and… the sight was just amazing. They flew over a giant island with snowy mountains, swamps, grasslands, rivers and everything "Wow."

"Now that's a sight." Martin added.

"Welcome to the Island." Jessica giggled "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"It sure is, but…" Martin spoke "It'd pretty hot here and yet… over there!" he pointed towards snowy mountains "Is that snow really starting just behind a river and yet the other side seems nice and warm?"

"Yeah." Jessica laughed "We'll explain everything once we're safely at the settlement."

"Settlement?" Bloom asked.

"Before us."

Bloom and Martin peered from behind her and saw they were headed for a small island few dozens of meters away from shoreline. Island had a nice bay and a small hill in U shape with center being on sea level and flat, surrounded on 3 sides by cliff. This part was walled off and dinos and animals were inside. There were houses all around the island. Also the bay was walled off from rest of the ocean.

As they flew over the bay they could see sea creatures with saddles on them, swimming around. There were also people all over the island, talking, fishing, crafting… simply living.

"Hold tight, we're landing." Two of them took a firm hold, wyvern swung its powerful wings and landed just behind the bay. People began converging on their location. Two more wyverns landed on other sides of island.

"Hey!" an old man walked up them "Jessica, it is good to see you again. I see you brought friends."

"Noah." Jessica gently hugged the old man "These are Bloom and Martin. They are New Blood."

"Ah." Noah spread his arms "Welcome to South Haven. We are happy to have you here."

Everyone around clapped and cheered. Norris then came in with Karen and she joined Bloom and Martin.

After the initial welcome, after sun has set, other two armored guys walked up to Jessica "Jess, we'll be returning to Fort. We'll report our fight with Raiders."

"Alright." Jessica nodded "I'll brief the newbies."

With that, they split up and soon enough 2 wyverns flew off.

"Riding dragons… never thought I'd see it with my own eyes." Martin said. 3 Newbies were sitting on a bench just outside the animal pen.

"That is why they are Dragonriders." Noah was walking up them.

"Oh." Martin stood up to let old man sit down.

"Thank you. You're a good young man." Noah said as he sat next to Bloom and Karen "I hope you three are doing well."

"After the welcoming you gave us… how could we not." Karen added "Honestly… this all still feels like a bad dream."

"We all thought the same thing." Noah was smiling, looking at the main island. There were 3 huge floating pillars, each of different color. One visible from island was green "When I first came to this island, I was alone for 3 days. I was quite a handsome strong man if I do say so myself." Newbies giggled a little on this comment "I was on northern part of island and what I didn't know is that, it is exactly where most predators live. Big ones, like T-Rex. When I realized that, I was already being chased by a big allosaurus. I ran away, but despite being so young, I had no stamina. But then, a majestic dragon swung down from skies and took me into its claws. I thought I was done for, but… it carried me to this island, this town. They saved me and welcomed me among themselves with open arms."

Martin, Karen and Bloom smiling now, feeling much more relaxed. An old man telling them a story is really soothing. Bloom then asked "Who exactly are those… Dragonriders?"

"We are protectors." They all looked ahead to see Jessica walking up to them "We are part of our society, responsible for protecting, scouting and solving problems. We fly wyverns, use the most powerful armament and… we are also responsible for ascension."

"Ascension?" Karen asked "And… where exactly are we? I mean where on Earth. Such an island… are we near Hawaii?"

Jessica giggled a little while sitting on ground before the group "Listen, I know what I'm about to tell you will sound crazy, but… it's just how it is. We are no longer on Earth." Everyone's eyes went wide "I am forbidden to tell details to those who have not ascended, but know that we are on ARK, an artificial self-sufficient habitat sealed off by a force field."

"ARK?" Martin sat down on ground as well "And… how did we get here? Who put us here? Who created this?"

Jessica rose her hand to stop him "As I said, I cannot tell details to someone who has not ascended. By Ascension we mean fight with us and carry on to another ARK."

"Another one?" Bloom asked "How many are there?"

"You'll have a chance to see soon enough." Jessica leaned back and supported herself with her arms "As a matter of fact, you guys came just in time. We are preparing for another ascension. If you three will want to stick with us and join Dragonriders in fight, you'll learn everything about ARK."

"And if we do not fight?" Karen asked.

"Then you will be with us." Noah pitched in "We and all our dinos will be stored in special devices called Cryopod. Dragonriders will carry us to another ARK and release us once they find a safe place there. It will pass like nothing happened."

"By stored, you mean what exactly?" Bloom seemed very uncertain.

"Let me show you." Jessica stood up and walked up to Martin. Implant on her left hand shone bright red and out of thin air in her right hand appeared a small slow cylinder device. It was shining blue and had a very futuristic design "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing."

She extended hand with device towards Martin and in a second Martin began disappearing. As if his whole body was turning into thousands of polygons that flew into the device.

Then, he was gone and device had a rotating DNA hologram above it.

"What the…" Karen stood up in shock.

Jessica threw the device few meters away from her and in a flash of those same particles, Martin was standing there as device floated back into Jessica's hand. Martin was really confused and looked around in amazement "How did I just… I was in that thing?"

"Yup." Jessica rose her hand to show them the device "This is Cryopod, they can store any living or artificial being. We store all those who do not wish to fight and non-combat dinos in these and carry them to other ARK, where we release everyone safe and sound."

"There's no shame in not wanting to fight. You can always contribute in other ways." Noah laughed "Ah, I tried to ascend with them once. I got safely out of there only thanks to Jessica's father, who stored me in spare Cryopod."

"I don't wanna be just stored." Karen spoke up "How dangerous is the ascension?"

"Very." Jessica said "We face huge dinosaurs and dozens of other predators to even get close to final fight and even there we face many obstacles."

"I…" Karen hung her head "Sorry. I thought that maybe I'd be able to help, but… I am just a student. All I know is how to sew some clothes."

"That is something many will appreciate and need." Noah gave her a nice smile "You will be more than welcomed to stay with us, or maybe some other village that belong to our society."

Martin was scratching back of his head "I am no fighter either. I am a building technician. I can maybe help with building houses, but… I have no idea how to fight."

"Talent everyone needs here as well." Noah laughed "We are lucky to have so many talented people this time. And what about you, Bloom?"

She seemed uncertain, certainly shocked. She seemed to have PTSD from what happened back at the cage. Well… who wouldn't?

"I… I want to… be the… Dragonrider."


End file.
